The invention relates to a method for presenting of a multimedia software package that comprises multiple assets, which can be presented in various combinations in a dialogue with a person involved. This person in the first place concerns a standard user, who for reasons of entertainment, business, education or other, enters into a dialogue with the software package. At present, the user person then has often only a very superficial and/or incorrect notion of the many parts that have been built into the package, and also of the parts that have been and/or could be visited, in particular in relation to the parts that had already been visited, and in relation to the interrelationships between the various parts.
In less frequent but just as relevant situations, the person is an author, who must undertake amending or writing of the package, and therefore, should even be more critically aware of parts that are already available or rather, still missing, so that the resulting structure after the amending is optimum in relation to desired content and functionality, and furthermore in relation to time and other resources spent therefor. A particular field of use of the software is for education, training, or instruction, where the package may contain a multiplicity of sections, course units, and the like.
In both situations the listing of the assets or various other properties of the package in some kind of array would do insufficient justice to the various parts and/or features that have been built or should be built into the package. In consequence, there is a need for providing an appropriate manner of presentation of such complex packages, that in particular allows for a dynamic behaviour of the presentation, as based on past experience.
Therefore, amongst other things it is an object of the present invention to provide a presentation method of the kind described that will be able to present the software package and its constituent parts, not only on the straightforward level of their presence or absence, but also on the level of what they will on various levels of complexity be able to perform. Now, according to one of its aspects, the invention is characterized by the characterizing part of claim 1. The providing of a plurality of multimedia building blocks instead of only a single one, and in particular as being linked in a structure description in accordance with an appropriate information model, will allow a more extensive, and if required, more complete navigation among the various multimedia building blocks and their constituent elements.
Advantageously, said information model is expanded according to claim 2. In combination with the above facilities, similar advantages apply to an author, who will then more easily set up a proper structure of a multimedia software package with a complex set of linkings among parts, so that they can be accessed more fruitfully in future time. Also, the creation process itself is greatly facilitated. Generally, the accessing system and the creating system can be aggregated into a single overall arrangement, on the basis of a structure information database.
Advantageously, various basic information types are xe2x80x9ccourse unitxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cmultimedia building blockxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9citemxe2x80x9d, that are interrelated through content relations, subject relations and requirement relations; xe2x80x9cgoalxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9ccourse unitxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cmultimedia building blockxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9citemxe2x80x9d, related through content relations, subject relations and condition relations; said basic information types have a status variable range comprising the values xe2x80x9cdonexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9creachedxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cdoablexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cnot doablexe2x80x9d, in which the values xe2x80x9cdonexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9creachedxe2x80x9d may or may not be identified. An elementary, though highly versatile set of categories has thereby been provided for allowing to develop and present course material for almost any thinkable field of use.
The invention also relates to a software package for effecting such presenting and authoring, and to an associated system. Further advantageous aspects are recited in dependent Claims.